Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

How you'll make an impact

• Design and scale the data infrastructure that ingests live telemetry from tens of thousands of autonomous drones — reliably, efficiently, and with the scale to support the next generation of flight intelligence.
• Build and evolve our Databricks and Palantir Foundry environments to empower every Skydian to query data, define jobs, and build dashboards — turning raw telemetry into accessible, actionable insights.
• Develop data systems that make our products truly data-driven — from predictive analytics that anticipate hardware failures, to 3D connectivity mapping, to in-depth flight telemetry analysis that sharpens drone performance.
• Create and integrate AI-powered tools for data analysis, transformation, and pipeline generation — lowering the technical barrier and democratizing how teams access and build with data.
• Champion a data-driven culture by defining and enforcing best practices for data quality, lineage, and governance, keeping Skydio’s data lakehouse secure, performant, and cost-effective at scale.
• Collaborate with autonomy, manufacturing, and operations teams to unify how data flows across the company — enabling faster, smarter decision-making and unlocking AI-driven insights end-to-end.
• Lead and mentor data engineers, analysts, and stakeholders across Skydio — guiding teams toward better architecture, more reliable data models, and a shared culture of excellence.
• Ensure platform reliability by implementing robust monitoring, observability, and contributing to the on-call rotation for critical data systems.

What would make you a good fit

• 5+ years of professional experience, including 2+ years in software engineering and 2+ years in data engineering with a bias towards getting your hands dirty.
• Deep experience with Databricks building pipelines, managing datasets, and developing dashboards or analytical applications.
• Proven track record of operating scalable data platforms, defining company-wide patterns that ensure reliability, performance, and cost effectiveness.
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one modern programming language (we use Python), and comfort working across the full data stack — from ingestion and transformation to orchestration and visualization.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across all levels and functions — from engineers and analysts to senior leadership — and to translate data into clear narratives and decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical direction, mentor teammates, and promote engineering excellence and best practices across the organization.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted data workflows, including tools that accelerate data transformations or enable natural-language interfaces for analytics.

Bonus: Experience in robotics, IoT, or autonomous systems, or building data systems that integrate with real-world hardware.

Compensation

Annual base salary range: $180,000-240,000. Includes equity, comprehensive benefits, paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, 401K.